Dakar Rally: Al Attiyah Continues Run of Dominance Overall Lead

Riyadh, January 10 (QNA) - Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah maintained the overall lead in the Dakar Desert Rally held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the third year in a row, despite being in eleventh place with the conclusion of the eighth stage today which was held between Dawadmi and Wadi Al Dawasir at a distance of 830 km, of which 395 km is a special stage. Al Attiyah with French navigator Mathieu Baumel, suffered from mechanical problems in his car to finish outside the top ten for the first time in this years edition, thus reducing Al Attiyahs advantage in the overall standings to 37 minute 58 seconds with 4 stages remaining for the end of the rally. Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi is in tenth place, maintaining his third place in the general standings, 53 minutes ahead of Al Attiyah. Swedish Mattias Ekstrom of the (Audi) team took the first place in this stage and passed it in 3:43:21 hours, ahead of his French colleague Stephane Peterhansel who finished second, while the French BRX driver Sebastien Loeb came third by a difference 3 minutes and 8 seconds off the leader. (QNA)